


Rocks Break Gifts

by elderbwrry



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst, Armitage Hux Has Feelings, Bottom Kylo Ren, Conciliation, Established Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, Grand Marshall Armitage Hux, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Kylo Ren and the Impossible Task, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-TLJ, Rejection, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, That's Not How The Force Works, They're in love!, Top Armitage Hux, but more importantly, fashion of the First Order, they are both problematic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:00:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25840237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elderbwrry/pseuds/elderbwrry
Summary: The Rebellion has been crushed, a coup affected, and Supreme Leader Ren and his Grand Marshall Hux have settled into a domestic routine as the joint rulers of the Galaxy. Kylo wants nothing more, now, than to make his relationship with Hux official, but he can't seem to rise to Hux's challenge of a satisfactory proposal.Or, the five times Kylo proposes, and the one time Hux says yes.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 69
Kudos: 263





	1. When You See A Rock Coming, It Hurts Less

1.

_“This is your fault,” Hux accuses him, and, as if he is underwater, his voice is so far away, so muffled. His gaze is sharp and unforgiving, the lines of his frown as harsh as the lines of his uniform, his shoulders set, posture perfect in parade rest. Behind him, lines upon lines of stormtroopers, officers, droids, pilots; this is more than an abandonment._

_This is an execution._

_Hux will not twist the rules so artfully as he has done before to raise Kylo up, no, he is the executioner, the one who will give the order to open the hangar bay doors and release the air lock. His piece said, he turns away, disappearing off into the crowd of men. He will not reach out, offer his hand to pull the two of them back together._

_And Kylo has done it._

_Everything Hux is abandoning him for, he has done._

Monster! _His mind roars at himself, and he bares his teeth –_ murderer! _– ready to bite and slash as his feet disconnect from the deck beneath him and he floats –_ betrayer! _– cold and far away from Hux, who will extend no soft kindness or loving words to him ever again, because he has done it, he has done it all, maimed and razed and fled, and all he is is an animal to be set off a leash and Hux doesn't want that, doesn't love him for it, he's done it-_

A sound ripped its way from Kylo's throat, and he lurched awake, limbs dragged up into the air by the Force or his own overactive imagination of falling.

It was dark – it was dark, there... He was so hot, his hair was clinging to his forehead, his neck, his clothes were stretching across him, trapped in thrashed sheets. Light, he needed...  _light_ , he-

“Kylo?” The small question rose from the mattress next to him, as he breathed – in, out, in, out, his lungs heaved – and tried to remember where he was.

In bed.

His quarters.

His and Hux's quarters.

Their quarters.

Together.

“Are you alright?” Hux asked, a solid, present weight at his right hand side, languid with sleep and trust, nothing like the hateful, frigid, geometric shapes of the trick-Hux he had seen in his dream.

“Hux,” he said, his voice hoarse, like he had been screaming. In his dream, he had been, but there was no way he had in real life. Hux would have woken him earlier. Quite suddenly he realised his eyes were wet, and he sniffed. He was still hot – far too hot – but he turned, reaching out towards Hux with arms and Force both, drawing him into a tight embrace and revelling in the feeling of his presence so close to him, bird bones and drum skin that he loved, the glassy hollow of his space in the Force, like a river rock polished smooth, which could sit on his tongue as a cold, unblemished weight.

He tucked his head in behind Hux's, allowing his ragged exhales to play across his love's nape, enjoying the feel of the little hairs there against his nose, pressing the entire length of his body into Hux's, front to back, knees slotted to knees, forearms curled around Hux's ribcage, tracking his heartbeat, just to feel that he was still  _there_ . He smelled like comfort and balm.

“Kylo?” Hux asked again, sounding more awake by the second, detaching his arm from Kylo's embrace and bringing it up behind him to dance his fingers across Kylo's cheek, up to his temple, into his hairline, grasping around blindly in the darkness of their bedroom, unable to turn.

Kylo didn't want him to turn, didn't want him to see something looming out of the black, didn't want his Hux to become the Hux in his dream, didn't want to manifest some half-asleep revelation that actually, Kylo was nothing more than a beast.

He was so tense, but he didn't want to separate from Hux for even a moment. “Bad dream,” Kylo told him.

Hux's hand stroked through his hair, nimble fingers soothing him. “Do you want to tell me about it?”

_No_ , Kylo wanted to say, but he wasn't sure how it would come out, so instead he shook his head, the low scraping of skin on fabric imparting the meaning for him.

Hux sighed, his other hand trailing through the sparse hair on Kylo's caging forearms. “You're alright, you're here with me.”

Kylo said something, lips pressed close into Hux's skin like he could map the request directly into him, to travel up his nervous system – white hot in the Force, so close to Kylo like this – and be written into his very being. He was soft and cooler than Kylo, and Kylo wanted to melt into him.

“Hmm?” Hux asked, shifting his head to hear Kylo better, bringing his arm back down to lace their fingers together.

Kylo was glad Hux was so sleepy; had he been fully awake, he would be in no mood to ask him to repeat, instead more likely to chastise him for speaking too quietly. “Never leave me,” he ordered Hux, but his voice wavered, broke and derailed into a question, a feeble prayer.

“I won't,” Hux said, immediately trying to calm him. He could already feel Hux's shrewd brain piecing together the dream, imagining, realising. “I won't, Kylo. I'm yours. I'm right here.”

The words were out of Kylo's mouth before he had even a second to think about them, but as they vibrated through the air, he knew they were spoken truly, and that he meant them. “Then marry me.”

Hux stiffened, and his motions stopped. His brain, which Kylo had felt still operating at that relaxed level reserved only for after sleep or orgasms, shifted to awareness, to more complex thought. There was no doubt he had heard. “Kylo.”

“Hux, please, will you marry me?” he repeated, dropping open mouthed kisses onto the gap between his shirt and his hair.

“You're only asking me because you had a bad dream,” Hux started, “I-”

“No, no, Hux,” Kylo interrupted. Yes, he'd had a bad dream, but this made sense to him, he knew it was right. “You won't leave me, I love you, I want to get married, I want...” Now the idea was in his brain, he was burning with it, consumed, practically. He wouldn't give it up. “Please, be my husband.”

For an eternity there was nothing except silence, the weight of Kylo's desire for their relationship to be made concrete pounding in his heart, Hux's shallow breathing. Had he... had he messed it up? Was this what he was supposed to do to get Hux to look at him that way from his dream, with revulsion, loveless, barely a pitying sneer as he opened the forcefields between the hangar bay and space and let Kylo lift off out into the void? Was this how it happened?

“Do you mean it?” Hux asked eventually, voice quiet and grave.

“I do,” Kylo said, burrowing into the pillow and tightening his hold around Hux's middle.

“Ask me again,” Hux said.

“Hux, will you-”

“No,” he cut off, and Kylo frowned. “Ask me again later. Make it... more romantic.”

“More romantic?”

“Yes,” he paused. “Then I know you'll mean it.”

“So... you won't leave me?”

“No, Kylo, I'm right here.”

“I love you.”

“Come on. Let's go back to sleep.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is really short, but there's more written, I promise. I'm going for a consistent plot here with imagery - imagery, can you believe.  
> They say imagery is a gateway to metaphors ( ⚆ _ ⚆)  
> I always forget what I was going to say in the end notes, so instead you can have a song rec of [You're Dreaming](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhG6crUCY6E) by Wolf Parade even though I didn't write this chapter to it, it just made me laugh right now.  
> My tumblr, [@elderbwrry](https://elderbwrry.tumblr.com/).  
> Also, none of this is beta read or anything so any mistakes? My own


	2. People Who Live In Glass Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones

2.

Kylo had it, he thought, as he strode down the halls of the _Supremacy_ to the bridge, where Hux would be found.

He had taken the time, since he had asked Hux to marry him that night in bed, to think things through, get things together. Admittedly, a lot of that thinking had been his mind rushing for the rest of that same night, as he hadn't been about to go to sleep any time soon, preferring to think with Hux's quiet kitten-breaths as ambient noise; he was so peaceful when he slept.

Kylo had gotten an engagement ring – a sleek, black diamond one which he'd had to re-allocate funds for (don't tell Hux) hollowed out of one of the long-dead star husks floating around out in the distant Outer Rim. That was part of why it had taken him so long to get it. He hoped Hux hadn't forgotten about the proposal completely in that time, although he was so busy that Kylo wouldn't be surprised if he had.

Ideally, he would have made a ring out of kyber and imbued it with his own Force signature, something special and personal for Hux to have from him, but since the destruction of Ilum, the First Order's access to kyber was greatly reduced. Kylo happily would have gone on a personal crusade into enemy space to bring some back with which to propose, but he reasoned Hux would have more of an objection to the Supreme Leader leaving than he would to having a ring made of something other than kyber.

Instead, Kylo had settled for spending time threading the Force through each individual molecule of the diamond, turning it into something of a magnetic shield to repel Force attacks of all kinds; the rebellion was crushed, but there were still several known Force users unaccounted for, and Kylo wanted his consort to be protected from them. Wherever he wore the ring, Hux would be safe.

Kylo felt good about this. His helmet was on, lest he give away the surprise to Hux by grinning. The little box containing the ring was burning in his pocket, sucking in his attention like a little black hole as it bumped against his leg with every stride. He had more regal robes to wear, better fitting his station as the Supreme Leader, but with the helmet – and both he and Hux agreed on this – his classic, long black habit looked best.

The corridors on the _Supremacy_ were bigger than the ones on the _Finalizer_ , grander and shinier, but Kylo could still feel the ripples he was making as he strode purposefully through them, people scattering out of his way. Since he had become Supreme Leader, people had begun treating him with no small measure of awe along with the prior fear, which he relished. These people weren't used to their leader, overlord, Dark master of the Force walking among them, and Kylo knew he would rue the day the novelty wore off.

He rounded the corner through the large open doors of the bridge, a massive, gleaming cathedral to the might of the First Order, Hux standing centre stage in his pristine uniform, surveying the moon before them, a marbled purple and white orb at the mercy of their fully stocked weapons bay, should they decide to use it.

Drawing to a halt, Kylo allowed himself a moment to regard his Grand Marshall.

Hux was like a god looking down from on high, controlling the fate of an entire celestial body, the brain of the creature in the Force that the _Supremacy_ constituted. Kylo was merely his hand, truth be told, not the other way around. Hux was his fire, his heart, his guide.

And soon, his husband.

Kylo resumed his path forward, down the long aisle illuminated by the blinking diodes, the strip lights and the system's sun beaming out through space. Hux did not turn as Kylo approached and came to a halt just next to him, something which he found ridiculously sexy considering it was quite literally _nothing_.

Hux's chin was raised proudly, surveying the workings of the bridge and the moon outside, its swirling cloud patterns and its crawling horizon line separating night from day.

Today, Kylo's love was wearing the black iteration of his uniform, the one with the elbow-short cape, sporting, as he preferred, only modest insignias of rank rather than those of decoration. Beneath that was a long, ironed tunic which fell to the floor, gathered together with a belt at the waist to accentuate his lithe form. His hair was gleaming, nothing out of place but the crown Kylo wanted to set upon it, where it belonged.

Kylo had half a mind to order every single one of the present personnel off of the bridge, shoo out the droids and close the doors, to lay Hux down on the floor and remove every stitch of fabric from him, to make love to him under the convex sky of the moon hanging both above and below them due to a trick of perspective and grav systems. He would worship Hux, beg him to bestow upon him even the meanest of favours.

One day, he might even do such a thing – Supreme Leadership had its powers, after all – however, an empty bridge would not serve his current purposes.

Comfortably, he lifted a gloved hand and placed it on Hux's waist, his arm cradling his back in an undemanding way. Hux had no reason to run from his touch as he had before Kylo had ascended, and none of the personnel would dare challenge them or gossip about either of them in any meaningful capacity. Hux did not even tense, Kylo sensed with satisfaction, a testament to the stable situation.

“Supreme Leader,” Hux greeted quietly. There was no need for even such a salute between them, but Hux always managed to make his title sound so sexy and intimate that Kylo would do nothing to discourage his continued adherence to the custom.

“Grand Marshall,” he returned. “What are you thinking about?”

“Can't you tell?” There was no animosity in it, as there once had been, no accusation that Kylo was some snoop in his thoughts.

Kylo inclined his head. “I'd like you to tell me.”

“I'm thinking of how there was an outpost here, recently, of rebels,” Hux mused. “Not the main faction, of course, mere hermits deluding themselves that they could escape the Order.”

“Yes?”

“I'm thinking about how they are gone,” Hux tipped his chin up, still facing the moon, a look of mild vindication passing across his eyes. “They burned themselves out like a candle with too little wax. The moon is now ours.”

Kylo hummed, squeezing his hand on Hux's waist in silent congratulation. This was all down to Hux's tireless work.

Now Hux turned his head, just a little, to regard Kylo. “What are you thinking about?”

Kylo smiled, the motion obscured by the mask. He teleported the box and its ring out from within his pocket and into his hand. It was easier than fumbling with layers of long cloth, and there were no obstacles left to him within the Force, not since Hux had joined him at his side, not since he had ascended to Master, Supreme Leader, discovering himself in the process. Now, he would honour the man who had done that for him, in this obsidian cathedral, in front of their subjects.

Withdrawing his arm, Kylo spun around to face Hux, using the Force to send his cloak fanning out in a majestic mirror of the action. He dropped to one knee and raised the ring, nestled in its red velvet lined box like a pearl, gazing up at his love. “I'm thinking how lucky I would be if you would agree to marry me, Hux,” he spoke. He tried to put some of that rumble he knew Hux loved into his voice, but, to his dismay, the mask's vocal filter flattened it out and crinkled it up again in a different shape.

The entire bridge drew to a halt; droids stopped their beeping, lights stopped their blinking, officers silenced their chatter, even the moon outside seemed to stop spinning. There was a chance he had done this all with the Force, Kylo thought, or, since there was less of a limit now between where he ended and the Force began, that the Force had done it itself. Even more simply, perhaps, such a request has a power in its own right to call everything except the two at its heart to a stop.

Kylo was not, however, under the illusion of peace and harmony in all things for long, as Hux, now angled towards him, frowned, his lips pressing into a seam, eyes glued dispassionately not to the ring, but to Kylo's visor. He lifted his hands – bare of gloves today and tantalisingly porcelain – and for a moment, Kylo hoped that he would put them on his helmet and remove it, place them over his own breast and swoon, or take the ring at least; instead, he crossed his arms, tucking his perfect hands away underneath the cape.

“No,” he said flatly.

“Hux, I-” Kylo began to reason, a coldness rushing in over him.

“My standards are higher than this, I'm afraid,” Hux replied, rolling his eyes.

Kylo's mouth, which had been hanging open under the mask, snapped closed. Now he was glad he had the mask for another reason; no-one here would be made to have the broken expression on their Supreme Leader's face reconditioned out of them. There were tears also, welling up on his lower eyelids, some hot like embarrassment and anger, some stinging like frustration, some mellow like disappointment.

“Why not?” he asked, when he thought he could handle it. The vocal filter could catch the worst of it.

Hux sighed and finally – _finally_ – extended a hand, one finger drawn out to tap three sharp times on Kylo's helmet, the sound coming through as if he was an embryo inside an opaque, black bird's egg.

“Oh,” he said, so quietly that the vocal filter didn't even pick it up.

“And look at where we are!” Hux exclaimed, gesturing around the room, to the rapt communications lieutenants and ensigns who would run messages around on data pads for approval. “The bridge? Really?”

Kylo had nothing to say to that. The scene crumbled around him. Hux shook his head and marched out through the large doors, off who knows where. Kylo just watched him leave.

He stayed kneeling, staring at the last space in the hall that Hux had occupied as second after second ticked by. The stars and moon begun rotating again. The lights resumed their blinking. Someone coughed, and a droid rattled off a string of staccato calculation sounds. He allowed his head to fall forward when he ultimately hauled himself to his feet, bitterly examining his perfect ring. Several people were still looking at him, trying and failing to avert their gaze as he turned in their direction.

Opening the borders of his mind as a rose opens its petals, Kylo extended his will out over the entire bridge, pouring feelers into the minds of the people around him, everyone who had... seen.

Sparks flew from droids as he overloaded them, some of them letting out a high pitched scream of fried circuity as lights flickered overhead. “You remember nothing of this,” he thundered into each person's psyche, feeling their memories of the past five minutes being crushed into nothing, like a piece of ash between his fingertips. Carefully, he withdrew, secured himself back inside the flower petal capsule of the Force, snapped the ring box closed and shoved it in his pocket, stalking off the bridge with heavy footfalls.

Hux had said no. Hux hadn't even looked at the ring. Hux had embarrassed him in front of-

Kylo killed that line of thought. _I didn't embarrass you_ , an imaginary version of Hux supplied in his mind, _you embarrassed yourself_.

He shouldn't have proposed out on the bridge. He shouldn't have worn his helmet. It was, if anything, a reminder of the worst time in their relationship, when Snoke was still driving an axe between their natural intertwined growth, when Kylo was still a weak husk of Ben Solo yet to find his true place in the Dark, when Hux was still haunted by the possibility that he was only riding off the success of his forbears. He shouldn't have worn the helmet.

He wanted it off, but he needed to get to a training room before then, where he could let his rage free to explode out of taught muscles and boiling self-loathing of his foolishness. He needed... a 'fresher, to stem the steady flow of blood from his nose.

Still, Hux hadn't refused completely; he had only said that Kylo hadn't done it _right_.

Kylo was resolute. There would be no mask next time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I physically don't seem to be capable of writing chapters longer than 3000 words max? This is more like 2000, but every single thing I write, a 'chapter' is only that long. Weird.  
> Also, I apparently cannot resist redesigning Hux's First Order uniforms in every single way. I've lost the original reference, but I was thinking of like a First Orderier version of [Cardinal Copia's (from Ghost) black cassock.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVyMUtwvexs&list=PLx1Z_8Mg77sB9KLriB-uDx_1x56tGp9mF&index=3) I just think its pretty :/  
> I'm not 100% sure what I was listening to when I was writing this, either, but I have a feeling it was [Quiet Light](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiiXhHQ10XY) by the National.  
> Poor Kylo, he just wants to be emo and romantic. Thank you for reading my attempt at making him so :)


	3. We Should Build With The Stones We Have

3.

It seemed Kylo hadn't done a thorough enough job of erasing everyone's memories, because news of the proposal still got out, spreading all around the ship and even to others across the fleet. Nobody seemed to have confirmed the outcome, however. People generally assumed Hux wouldn't be able to refuse his Supreme Leader – clearly none of them had quite experienced just how obstinate he could be, and certainly none of them knew just how by-the-balls he held Kylo – but no wedding date had been announced, so speculation was rife. Luckily, the overall sentiment Kylo was feeling was an endearing one, that of well-wishing for their leaders.

Unfortunately, it just made Kylo feel more pressured to get it right.

He wanted to try again, and this time he would do it properly. He had considered Hux's criticism and would adjust accordingly; not in public, no helmet. He would have to keep a greater check on his emotions, otherwise they would spill out all over his face and ruin the whole thing.

They hadn't actually spoken about the proposal since the bridge. At all. When Kylo had finally pulled himself together to go back to their rooms and face Hux, the Grand Marshall was already asleep, clutching at Kylo's pillow so tenderly that he couldn't find it in him to feel angry about the brazen rebuttal. In the morning, they'd had soft sex that felt far more like Hux had said yes than no. After that... neither of them brought it up.

It had been a few weeks since then.

Opportunity had presented itself; a collection of old Republic megacruisers had been found hiding out in an asteroid cluster in the Expansion Region. They were stocked with various weapons and other things of interest, but manned only by a skeleton crew. Three star destroyers in situ had secured them, but, when he heard about them, Kylo had insisted the _Supremacy_ go to along in case any of the people there were important Force users or rebel leaders he needed to identify. Hux hadn't really agreed that he needed to go there personally, hauling the entire _Supremacy_ with him, but he also hadn't argued.

So here they were.

As it turned out, there were a couple of minor political prisoners to be taken, and some promising Force-sensitives Kylo had ordered be kept under tight security until they could be interrogated and killed, or convinced to the Dark side. The inventory of weapons was most satisfying, as well as a developed hydroponics and generation-ship retrofit, and Hux had sent him some excited messages about some of the tech they had found there and were going to haul back to the _Supremacy_ 's cavernous dry-docks.

Kylo loved it when Hux indulged his engineering side. As good as he was at being Grand Marshall, engineering was what he truly loved to do, and his face and mind lit up beautifully in the face of a mechanical challenge. He had even personally built Phasma's bionic prosthetics after she was wounded in the rebel attacks that paved the way for Kylo's ascension.

Kylo smiled fondly down at the messages on his data pad where, by their frequency and repeated use of a usually-rare exclamation mark, it was becoming clear just how excited Hux was. Kylo imagined him on the shuttle transport back from the cruiser, bouncing up and down in his chair with anticipatory energy, head teaming with ideas and initiatives to be getting on with the second he had a free moment.

It was good that he was in a good mood. That would serve Kylo.

 _When you return, meet me in the private observation room on deck 120_ , Kylo typed out after the fifth message Hux had sent planning a project on the same piece of equipment. Now, all that was left to do was wait.

The observation room was darkened, focussing the attention on the brightness of space outside, made for viewing the passing scenery or for having a private place to discuss business. There were comfortable chairs to the side and back, floor sloped to the back of the room like a holo-cinema so that everyone inside could see out of the massive screen window. This room, however, would be empty except for Kylo and Hux, when he arrived.

Situated somewhere above the bridge, the windows looked forward, out onto the five collected megacruisers idling in their crowd of rocks, somewhat larger than the star destroyers, yet still dwarfed by the massive floating country of the _Supremacy_. They were illuminated brightly – Kylo never failed to be amazed by how bright everything was in space, lit by unobstructed suns – and Kylo could see their slow turn, perspective changing as the star destroyers slowly drew back in preparation.

Hux would be here soon. The shuttle would have docked by now, and he would be making his way up, long legs carrying him with haste, spurred on by delight at his successful acquisitions.

Kylo had a little surprise in store; the megacruisers were too old to be resold or incorporated into their fleet in any capacity, too large to be hauled back or even fully salvaged. They would have to be destroyed. Those criminals unimportant enough that they could be executed would be taken care of at the same time, left in their rooms on their ships. Kylo had made sure that there were suitable explosive compounds in the correct places to make it a spectacular show.

He was going to let Hux pull the trigger.

He smiled to himself. This would be good, he thought. He would put on a show for Hux, and then he would ask. They were in private, and he was _not_ wearing his helmet. His short sleeved tunic was black and wrapped in at the waist while it puffed out a little around his chest, hanging long to the floor, a shape he knew Hux liked on him. Underneath, he wore a skintight, long sleeved layer reaching from his wrists to his jaw. He had even made sure to put his mess of hair in a more carefully curated bird's nest than usual. The ring was in his pocket.

This would work.

The door at the top of the room opened, letting in a rectangle of white light that reached down the floor just to Kylo's shoes. He felt the ripple of Hux's presence before he turned to greet him, heard the poised, padding footsteps over the room's carpet. The door closed, and his vision adjusted to see Hux as more than just a shady outline in the corridor's light. He looked gorgeous, in his white uniform (slightly more formal than his black ones, marking him out as en engineer), clad with a different cape that fell to his mid thighs, his face lit up with a smile.

“Hello,” he said, crossing the final few metres to join Kylo by the window.

“Hey,” Kylo replied, reaching out to pull Hux into a welcomed kiss, only briefly tightening his grip on Hux's waist when he tried to move back, keeping him there for another, slower one. Hux's left hand was splayed out on Kylo's stomach, his right hand at his elbow, his touch intoxicating. “I'm glad you had a good time,” Kylo whispered into the gap between their lips when he allowed them to part properly.

“Yes, it was one of your better ideas to come here,” Hux replied, dropping his gaze back to Kylo's lips and jumping in for another quick peck.

“I've got a treat for you.”

“Do you, now?”

Kylo gestured to the ships. The targetting systems were locked and ready on each. They had been from the very second Kylo had been informed of Hux's clearance of the explosion range. “The order to fire is yours,” he told him.

Hux looked from the ships to him, and back out to the ships again. They were still touching enough that Kylo could feel every micro-adjustment of balance. Hux was almost incredulous. “ _You_ don't want to?”

“I would like you to,” he purred, and Hux smiled that little, mouth half-open smile he did when something had really touched him. “Go ahead.”

“Who are you and what have you done with Kylo,” Hux muttered, even as he withdrew his data pad from his pocket and opened a communication line to the bridge. “Prepare to fire on the rebel ships,” he ordered, so imperious that Kylo couldn't take his eyes off him. “On my mark,” Kylo loved the sound of his voice, the long vowels his accent formed. “Fire!”

Kylo managed to wrench his eyes off of his love for just long enough to see the five green-white beams of light arc out towards the megacruisers, registering the rumble of the blasters from decks below them as the energy released, dazzled by the small fizzles of dust particles caught in the beams' path and the way they lit up asteroids as they passed. They touched the megacruisers in series, and everything was silent and motionless for a moment as the energy permeated its way around their hulls.

Then the ships exploded into blooms of purple, pink, yellow, orange and blue light, sending out globes of superheated metal that burned and gave off sparks and secondary colours. They were like humongous fireworks, the ones that hang over you in the air and crackle for little eternities, lily shaped against the blackness of the night, eclipsing everything around them. The flickers, Kylo observed raptly, played off of Hux's features in a charming array of colours, reflecting in his eyes and giving shadows to his almost translucent eyelashes. His lips were parted in awe, and his breathing had slowed.

“It's...” Hux began, words failing him as the main explosions died down, and the ambience toned down to the low yolky colour of the heated metal. “Stunning,” he finished.

Kylo was pleased, but he kept his face schooled. His extra care to make the compounds give off just the right colours to compliment each other had obviously paid off. He slipped his hand into his pocket, withdrew the ring box, opened the lid, held it out at chest height, where Hux would have to look down to see it. “I have this for you as well,” he murmured.

Hux's head dropped down to look at the ring, squinting just a little in the half-light to make it clearer. Kylo kept close watch on his face, and the exact moment he knew Hux had realised what he was asking was when his eyebrows shot up, and he removed both his hands from Kylo, leaving one – gloved in white, soft leather – to hover over the ring.

Hux was torn about whether or not to take it.

With a pang, Kylo realised this was not a good thing.

“Oh, Kylo, it's,” he stuttered, “oh gods, I... No.”

Kylo swallowed around a dry throat.

Hux actually looked... devastated, his eyes wide and searching, and he stepped back from Kylo completely.

“Hux, please,” Kylo asked, allowing his voice to slip into a beg, weak and broken. “Will you-”

“No, don't say it,” Hux instructed, “do not finish that.”

“Please! Why not?” His eyes were burning again. He would _not_ cry.

“I... I have things I need to go and do. I can't...” Hux said. He wasn't meeting Kylo's eyes and he seemed to be casting around for the explanation. “I can't stay, I'm busy. We're on duty.”

“I am never on duty,” Kylo snapped, feeling his frustration boiling over. “I'm the Supreme fucking Leader and I don't live my life in shifts. Neither do you, if I so wish it.”

Now Hux regarded Kylo for a moment, some expression Kylo couldn't place flitting across his features. Then his face was blank again, and he bowed stiffly. “Excuse me, Supreme Leader, my presence is required elsewhere.” With that, he turned and left, closing the door with a maddeningly quiet click on his way out.

So, again, Kylo was left rejected, staring at the space his love had just occupied. He... he didn't know what to say, or do, or what to think. Hux had refused him again, many enough times now that Kylo didn't know what to make of it. Maybe Hux really didn't want to get married, maybe...

Kylo felt no small measure of spite well up inside him. If Hux didn't want to get married, then he could just fucking say so. Until he did, Kylo would keep asking. Next time, he would make sure Hux was not on duty. He would keep eliminating the man's excuses until he had none. Hux would be laid bare to his scrutiny, and he would have to tell him the truth, however painful that was for both of them.

Kylo was shaking with... something. It wasn't just anger, it was hurt. He needed to do something.

He let the ring drop to the floor with a dull _thud_ , and strode over to the windows. He extended his fingers, strained his muscles across the vacuum until he could feel the turmoil of boiling metal and plasteel and rock from the ships, across his skin, in his bones. He dragged the bits together, slowly at first until the lumps got bigger and faster, into a single swirling, rotating mass of scrap, growing and amassing its own gravity, larger than many asteroids around it, spitting out hot jets of matter and fire which Kylo folded back in like they were clay.

The star destroyers, still making their way back to the _Supremacy_ , stopped in their tracks, sticking in space as they too got caught in Kylo's grasp, straining to continue until their power failed (he felt each one go, out like a diode). One listed to the side. Repairs would have to be made.

Kylo withdrew his power, let the globe of scrap spin under its own energy. He was bleeding, nose and ears, this time, and his eyes felt strained. He needed to stop doing that. He should go clean up.

Instead he let his knees fall out from under him and hit the floor, light headed, watching as TIE fighters and repair squadrons were scrambled, pouring out from the _Supremacy_ in long lines, little ants heading to repair their overturned hills.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In typical Kylux fashion, they can't just *communicate* what's wrong, they'll have to hash it out in the next chapter.  
> Hux's outfit today is a similar one to Krennic's one from the wonderful Rogue One, but with a shorter cape because Hux wanted a fun, flirty, spring feel.  
> Hope you enjoyed it :)


	4. It Is Drops Of Water That Make A Hole In The Rock

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Bronte](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le34ygtODfI) by Gotye, very much the kind of mood I wrote this chapter to

4.

The place they were preparing to land was cold and wet. Not quite what Kylo had hoped for, but it would do well. The report on it had read, _temperate climate, variable precipitation, seasons dictated by axial tilt_ , and that sounded like every report on a habitable planet Kylo had ever read, so he hadn't thought it would be too bad.

Well. He was wrong, the weather was fucking awful.

Still, maybe this was what Hux deserved. After Hux's third rejection – _third!_ – of Kylo's proposal, Kylo had moved into the gym for days on end, returning to their rooms only when he knew Hux would be out. Perhaps he had spoken too harshly, but he had reason to; Hux was prolonging this for _no reason_ and he had clearly wanted to say yes. Kylo had tried so hard!

Neither of them had made any attempt to apologise to the other.

Kylo was back in their rooms now – had been for a week – but things were still... sour.

Other people could tell; Phasma had messaged him to tell him to get his act together. He had summarily deleted the message and fucked off to the gym to hit things some more. His lightsaber had gotten more outings in board rooms and store closets than it had in a long time. The junior officers were more afraid of him than ever after a string of them had annoyed him and he, in turn, had temporarily removed their ability to breathe.

From what he had heard, Hux was treating everyone just the same as ever.

So, Kylo had foregone the potential arguments that could have arisen by asking Hux if he would accompany him to this planet, and instead had simply ordered him to. Now, they were about to land the jump shuttle in the middle of a blustery squall, on a cliff side meadow.

The official reason they were here was that Kylo needed time to meditate off of a ship, in touch with real gravity and life, all of which was tied into the Force, the desired result being that he would stop exerting himself so hard he popped blood vessels. The reason Hux was there was that Kylo had fucking said so. (Kylo wanted to inconvenience him, get back at him, force him to do something that would annoy him.) The reason they were specifically in the place they were – unreliable weather and all – was that the geographical form of the planet was split into two supercontinents, and the other, currently warmer one was inhabited by large predatory animals.

Animals which Kylo totally could handle, of course, he just didn't want to try.

He set the shuttle down with a none-too-gentle clunk, enjoying it just a little when he heard Hux stumble in the compartment behind him, letting out an _oof_ sound. Kylo flicked off all of the buttons and dials he needed to power the shuttle down completely – he didn't want any electrical buzzing to disturb him or the Force.

He manoeuvred himself out of the pilot's chair, noting how disgruntled Hux looked at all the jostling. It was just the two of them, now, no stormtroopers or guards despite how much people had warned him it was foolish to take the two most senior members of the First Order down to a largely unsurveyed planet without protection. They would be fine; Kylo was one with the Force, and the _Supremacy_ was in orbit. They would probably even be able to see it in the sky, were it not so overcast.

Wordlessly passing Hux, Kylo headed to the shuttle hatch and threw the mechanism to open it. It did so slowly, and the winds swept stray drops of fine rain inside. Slowly, more and more of the grey landscape was revealed; first, the grey-green long grasses of the meadow they were in, flattened around them by the shuttle's low-atmos rotors, speckled through with white little bell flowers on tall stems, and tufts of different, reedy grasses.

In the distance was a tall forest of trees resembling conifers, grey-brown stems and dark grey-green canopy. The sky was roiling, made up of grey clouds like they were under the surface of a turbulent sea, the spray spitting down onto them. There was a roar of the lurching ocean, gunmetal grey-blue, not visible from the hatch, but Kylo had seen it out of the shuttle's screen, raging up against grey-white cliffs they were perching on.

“Are you sure you want to go out there?” Hux asked, suddenly right next to him and attaching his cap to his head with a cord, seemingly unsure about the whole affair, examining Kylo like something was wrong with him.

Kylo didn't reply, just stepped out into the storm and began walking. He didn't check that Hux was following. He didn't have to; he could feel it in the Force, feel him glancing around at the cliffs, feel him traipsing and muttering under his breath.

Eventually, mid way out through the waist-high flora, Kylo stopped and let himself feel the chaos around him, of the swirling winds, the rain, the rocks, the sea. It was life. It was the Force. He breathed it into his lungs, letting himself get in touch with everything around him being so brash, so impulsive, so unlike the _Supremacy_ , which was so sterile and metal, even filled as it was with people and their tiny divots in the flow of the universe.

He reached out to calm things, to take the chaos into himself.

First, he made his cloak lie still in the wind, letting it hang wetly downwards instead of being snatched and dragged around. He would have stilled Hux's, too, a show of his power and grace, but this was a rare occasion on which Hux was not wearing a caped uniform, instead wrapped up inside a regulation blueish jumpsuit and waterproof grey coat which remained aggravatingly steady against his body.

He reached out into the clouds, whipped them into a different shape until the rain was no longer fine and irking, instead letting it fall in fat drops. He told it to be quiet as it did, and it hushed to a sussuration, like bird wings, soft and soaking. He righted his own hair with the Force – he wouldn't have it blowing around, getting in the way, making him look like a mess – and he moved to right Hux's as well, but it was all sensibly tucked away under the cap flaps.

He turned to find Hux a few meters away, facing him staunchly in spite of the rain. “We should get to the trees!” he shouted above the rushing of the ocean, which Kylo had yet to calm. “It will be easier to hear under there, and won't be as wet!” He started walking, picking his feet up so he didn't become tangled in the undergrowth.

Kylo raised his hand to stop him. _We are not going there_ , he told Hux, directly into his mind. He knew Hux didn't actually like it when he did that.

“What? Why not?” His voice was as strong as ever, even though he was still having to shout.

 _I will meditate here. I will be part of this_ , Kylo said, _I will be within it all. There is Darkness in this chaos_.

Hux glared at him for a second before taking the measure of the meadow they were in. To his left, it stretched on for seemingly miles. To his right, it dropped away to the cliffs and sea. Behind him was the shuttle. In front of him was the hulking forest, and between him and that was Kylo, standing like a drowned rat in his ridiculous, weather-inappropriate clothes, a barrier made of bull headedness. “Fine, _I'm_ going to the kriffing forest! I'm going to look around.”

Kylo didn't stop him this time. It would do Hux good to be here, in this sub-optimal place, to feel some of the frustration Kylo felt. He knew Hux “kriffing hated planets”, as he said every single time they went to one, but when Hux plodded past him, he could feel in him only vague interest in the forest, overshadowed by annoyance towards Kylo and his insistences on doing irrational things.

Still, he would take small, petty victories.

He waited, keeping careful watch until Hux reached the edge of the forest, at which point he pressed the instruction into his mind, _Come back here_.

Hux whipped round as he heard it, annoyance deepening into anger and pulsing off of him so strongly Kylo could feel it all that way over the field. Good. Hux deliberated for a moment, perhaps wondering exactly where he could tell Kylo to go shove it, before visibly steeling himself and traipsing his way back.

He got to about halfway when Kylo began walking to the cliff, the section the Force told him was the most stable. He could feel Hux's building frustration as he widened the gap between them, the Force parting the grass and easing his path. Looking as unconcerned as he possibly could, he took note of every crag of the cliffs he could see curving around past the shuttle and onwards. The ocean had several tall, neat stacks of white stone in it, knocked into shape by centuries of turbulent water beating at them.

“What?” Hux cried as he finally reached audible distance, not standing nearly so close to the cliff edge as Kylo. “Why am I running around a field like an idiot, Ren?”

Kylo met his eyes, green-grey like the grasses. “Why do you think?”

Hux huffed out a breath, clenching one of his fists and readjusting his cap with the other. “Honestly?” He seemed reluctant to continue, dropping his gaze for the moment the admission passed his lips. “When you first told me we were coming down here alone, I thought you were trying to take me somewhere for a romantic starlit night or something. To get away from the stress.”

Kylo almost laughed. “You thought we came here to fuck?”

“If you want to put it so crudely,” Hux spat, riled by Kylo's insensitivity, “I thought it a possibility. I can see now that was entirely too fanciful.”

Kylo considered the idea. Oddly, it was quite sweet, the kind of thing he might have done if Hux wasn't being such a hindrance to everything at the moment. Lifting a hand, he commanded the rain to stop, and it did, individual drops hovering in mid-air.

Hux merely seemed aware of the occurrence, not impressed. “Why are you doing this?”

“The rain isn't bothering you?” Kylo asked.

Hux bristled, vexed. That was fine, Kylo knew he hadn't meant the rain. “No, actually, I'm quite used to it.”

Now it was Kylo's turn to frown.

“I'm from Arkanis,” Hux explained, still with an irreverent little pout that would have signalled reconditioning for anyone else. Then, like an afterthought, “Do you know kriffing anything about Arkanis?”

“Yes,” Kylo said, but too quickly.

Hux immediately rounded on him. “You don't! You actually don't! Oh, never mind,” he said, his tone turning mocking, “it's only my insignificant little homeworld.”

Kylo's mind leapt to the connection. Of course, absently, he knew Hux was born planetside, he probably could even have named the place, if really pressed, but he was so used to Hux being a creature of space that it never occurred to him. So that was why Hux was so well prepared for the weather, coat and cap and practised squint against the rain; the climate on Arkanis must have been like this. “It's not like you know anything about where I'm from,” Kylo accused back.

Hux's eyebrows raised and he shook his head in disbelief. “Oh really? So I know nothing about Chandrila? About Hosnian Prime? New Republic culture? You think I don't read about these places so I can do nice things for you?” Kylo barely had time to consider this all – including the disturbing amount of hurt Hux was projecting – before he was back on his rant. “Why, of course, how shocking that I _can_ actually read, unlike some of us who just want to continue acting like children!”

“ _I'm_ acting like a child?” Kylo shouted back, shoving his hand into his pocket to pull out the ring. He kept it on him at all times now, both a burden-reminder of what he had done wrong, and a talisman of hope that he might catch just the right time, might just be able to ask Hux and have him actually agree. “You don't give a fuck about me the second I try to give you this, like I'm not worth your time even though I'm fucking _trying_.” He shook his hand, the ring tightly pinched between his gloved finger and thumb.

“You love me, Hux, I can feel it,” he said, features contorting, “but you keep drawing this out, making me do it again and again like some taskmaster. Like fucking Snoke all over again!”

Hux's mouth was shut tightly, probably gritting his teeth to stem all the vitriol he wanted to spew out the second Kylo stopped talking. His fists were clenched, his shoulders up above his ears, his stance set. They hadn't argued like this for a while now, not since Kylo was first crowned, but it seemed neither of them had forgotten the intricate rituals of body language and personal invective that worked so well on each other. Hux looked furious, even though it was somewhat ameliorated by the gathering redness on his nose at the chill, the way his waterproofs crinkled like they were too big for him, by how Kylo just wanted to fall into the comfort of his arms.

“Will you marry me, Hux?” His voice came out raw.

“Not like this,” Hux said quietly, but the Force amplified it for Kylo, had it echo over and over in his ears.

“Well fine, you fucking win!” Kylo shouted. “That's it!” With that, he turned and threw the ring over the cliff as hard as he possibly could, let it become a mere speck of rock in the fury of the elements.

Several things happened at once.

A crack of white lightning split the sky, rushing over from the land towards the sea and illuminating the clouds from within, like a second sun spun out into a tangle of string; the rain Kylo had been holding plummeted to the ground in a great sheet, coming harder than before with a sound like a slap; Hux fell to his knees, scrabbling dangerously near to the side of the cliff, peering over like he could catch sight of the thing Kylo had just cast away.

When he looked up, his features were stricken with such anguish that it struck Kylo like a physical blow. There were tears there, little tracks that he had previously thought were raindrops on Hux's perfect, high cheeks. “Kylo, why did you do that?” Hux yelled, his voice suddenly thin and fractured. “Get it back!”

Kylo was about to refuse, to list all the reasons why he couldn't – wouldn't – when Hux began to hiccup out great, heaving sobs. His hands slipped over loose bits of sand and rock, and he lifted them to wipe on his thighs before leaning back out, further than before, searching even now after the lost ring, making Kylo's stomach flip with how close he was to the edge.

“Kylo,” he stuttered out, “get it back.”

Something in Kylo broke. This was horrible. This place, this rain, this entire stupid plan to get back at Hux, the man he _loved_ , for fuck's sake. He could feel his own throat becoming tight.

Joining Hux on his hands and knees, he leaned out over the edge, the divide between land and air and water, reaching out for the ring and it's Force signature – _he had spent hours threading the Force through each individual molecule_ – like a man grasping around in the dark. He focussed, he blocked out the noises Hux was making, the sadness, the misery practically dripping off him now along with the rain, tried to imagine himself as a smooth stone thrown out into the wind, a rock in the sea, a pebble on the shore, dark and heavy and cold.

A spark; he had it.

He tugged. The thing was covered in silt, dashed against rocks and plunged into the ocean floor. He pulled. Up, it came free, sank to the surface through the thrashing gallons of liquid. He yanked. It broke the skin, flying up, faster and faster and faster until it stopped, captured by Kylo's outstretched hand.

Then, he didn't do anything for a long time.

He wasn't _back_ yet.

He wasn't finished being a rock, yet.

Finally, his muscles moved automatically, extended his hands and pressed the thing into Hux's trembling fingers, allowed him to cradle it, snatch it in against his chest. He was insensible to the things Hux was thinking, things which permeated into him unhindered, yet bounced off his consciousness like he was stone. Unhappy images of a grey rain planet, miles upon miles of shingle beaches on an angry coast, lightning arcing across the sky, of being forced inside by weather and forced outside by an unloving house, confusion as to where he belonged until he accepted how to deal with it.

When he came to, Hux was up on his feet, crying at the ring in his palm, tucking his head down and shouldering past Kylo, back to the shuttle. By the time Kylo reached out to call him back, it was too late, Hux was already too far away.

The storm within equalled the one without.

He needed... he needed...

The Force carried him to the forest, one foot in front of the other. He felt the thrum of trees, their dead insides, their live outsides, their leaves like needles. He felt the hum of insects and flying things hidden away from the world in their cracks and secret places. He felt all of these things crack under his hands. He didn't really remember, just knew that the splinters and dirt and upturned roots that had stitched small cuts into his face and clothes were still settling on the ground around him when he found himself back inside the shuttle.

The shuttle.

Hux wasn't in the main compartment. His coat was, lying on the floor in a soaked heap, but Hux was tucked away in the cramped little wash room, one of the emergency shock blankets missing from the medical pack, presumably in there with him.

Thoughtlessly, wordlessly, dripping small rivulets of blood and rain, Kylo fired up the shuttle, cranked up the heating to something more comforting and sped off back to the _Supremacy_.

On the ship, Hux pulled himself together long enough for the two of them to get back to their quarters without making a scene. In their rooms, he turned to Kylo, pulled off his cap and murmured, “I don't want to fight.”

“Hux, I'm sorry,” Kylo replied.

Somewhere between them falling into a kiss and falling into bed, they managed to get their clothes off and get into a warm shower. The towels were no different from usual, but they felt softer, larger than before. Warm and dry and tired, bacta applied to Kylo's cuts and kisses applied to Hux's tear tracks, they entwined themselves together under the bed covers. Kylo gently coaxed Hux to let go of the ring, leaving it on his own night stand, and turning his attention back to keeping Hux in his arms, draped over his chest, breath skimming across his clavicle, full of good dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angst? Angst.  
> I do hope you enjoyed it, though. Things get better from here.  
> 


	5. When A King Reigns It Is Thanks To The People; When A River Sings It Is Thanks To The Stones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kylo and Hux relax ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
> This chapter contains sexual content, so please read with discretion.

5.

Kylo surveyed the room one further time, just to check that everything was right. There were fluffy throws on all the chairs, flowers in vases on the tables, clutter tidied away more than Kylo usually bothered to (even though it drove Hux mad to have things strewn about). It was all right.

He nervously tightened the tie on his silk robe.

Since the planet, Kylo had let things be. He had tucked the ring away in the back of a drawer and didn't bring it up, so Hux could forget about it and he could forget about it and they could just go back to their habitual dynamic of domesticity and work. He had really hurt Hux – more than Hux had hurt him by refusing a largely ceremonial proposal a few times, he realised – and he wanted, no, _needed_ to make up for that before he even thought about asking again.

And Hux would say yes, eventually. He knew it. They lived together, they worked together, Hux certainly had the unofficial title of consort ready to add on to his already impressive list of roles whenever he wanted... and Hux loved him. Even if he didn't say it often, he did love him. Kylo could feel that, and he didn't need the Force to tell it to him. He just wasn't quite sure yet what the barrier was to Hux accepting. Once he worked it out and eliminated it, he was confident.

But tonight wasn't about that.

Kylo had – admittedly with some help from Phasma and the exasperated medical staff – convinced Hux to take some time off. A week of it, to be precise. Kylo had planned some nice surprises for him to enjoy in that week, beginning the second he got home from his shift.

That shift had ended twenty minutes ago.

He jumped when the door opened, having gotten so lost in his anticipation that he hadn't noticed the crush in the Force that preceded Hux's approach. From the kitchen island, he couldn't see Hux in the little entryway, the corner obscuring a direct view, but he could hear him shuffling about. Nervously, he waited for Hux to take off his shoes or gloves or cape (today was a white uniform day) or whatever he was doing, drumming his fingers on the kitchen counter top and bouncing from foot to foot.

Stars, he hoped Hux would like all this.

“Kylo?” Hux called, finally stepping out into the main part of the room, but not spying him straight away.

“Here,” Kylo replied, and, unable to keep still any longer, padded around the island to meet Hux, who raked his eyes over Kylo's form – naked under the robe, which was an uncharacteristic embroidered orange and gold – and drew him into a kiss, cupping his jaw in his hands.

“What's all this?” he said, letting his touch trail down to Kylo's exposed clavicle and line of his chest.

“I wanted to do something nice for you,” Kylo said, leading him over to the kitchen island, where dinner was already set out, a simple but nice dish he knew Hux liked. “Since you're always so hard at work.”

“I think you are supposed to give out medals for hard work,” Hux slid up gracefully onto one of the tall stools at the island and picked up his fork, “I hope you don't reward your other high commanders this way.” Kylo watched carefully as he tried the first bite, feeling pleased – and a little relieved – when Hux hummed in approval and went in for a second.

“Tell me about your day,” Kylo prompted, taking a seat opposite and starting on his own plate.

They spent dinner pleasantly, Hux expounding on the progress of the various different projects he had started, the (fortunately) minor setbacks, the thorough instructions he had left for his absence in the coming week. When the topic of conversation drifted over to the commander who had been left in control of the _Supremacy_ – Kylo had made very sure that the woman was capable, so Hux wouldn't have to worry about anything – Kylo could see him becoming antsy, itching to go and get back out on the bridge and make sure everything was running smoothly. Kylo quickly changed the subject by asking some questions about mechanics, into which he threw some wildly inaccurate comments which both outraged Hux and drew him into a more animated explanation.

“...which is why you need to have an accurate measure of motor speed, so you don't calculate it as quite slow, when it is actually, say, twice as fast,” he summarised, dinner mostly gone. While he was speaking, Kylo had been able to tune out just a little and use the Force to turn the bath taps in the other room.

“That was really good, thank you,” Hux said when he'd finished the meal, preparing to take the plate over to the washer, when Kylo summoned it over, out of his reach; he would not have Hux doing any work tonight.

“I've run you a bath,” Kylo told him. “You can relax for a bit.”

“No dessert?” Hux asked, eyes darkening as he looked over at Kylo, his gaze very much not at eye level.

Kylo closed the washer door – he had dismissed their droids for the evening – and straightened his robe with a smirk. “Later, if you'd like. Should I put some music on?”

“You know what I like,” Hux said, reaching out and brushing his hand over Kylo's on his way to the bathroom.

Pleased that Hux was happy, Kylo busied himself with clearing everything up – glasses, cutlery, tucking the chair in – he wanted everything to be perfect, and he was willing to put in extra effort for it to be so. He scrolled through the music in their system, selecting an older band he'd heard Hux listen to a number of times before, their music of an overall mellow mood with harder undertones in some of their instrumentals. It was a style which had had absolutely no traction in the Republic when Kylo was younger. Perhaps that was what Hux liked about it.

Kylo knocked gently on the bathroom door even though it was ajar, waiting until Hux called out permission before entering. Hux was already in the free-standing bath, thick pink bubbles up to his chest, his eyes closed and head tilted back, exposing the lines of his throat, more of a piece of art than anything else. His uniform was laid on the counter by the sink. Around the black tiled room, Kylo had lit some scented candles, even scattered some rose petals to be cheesy. The place looked like luxury, and Kylo would never get tired of seeing Hux surrounded by it.

“Is it okay?” Kylo asked, leaning on the door frame.

Hux hummed, allowing his head to fall to the side so he could see Kylo better. “This is exactly the right temperature. I have the Force to thank?”

“And a lucky guess on how long to leave it running for.”

“This is a good album,” Hux noted as the introductory song ended. The water shifted as he drew his arms out of the tub and draped them over the sides. Some bubbles were still sticking to the fine hairs on his forearm, and Hux blew at them until they came off, floating around. They were too heavy to stay up, but Kylo surreptitiously used the Force to keep them at head height.

“Is there anything else I can get you?” he asked, cocking his head.

“A glass of wine?”

Kylo fetched one, the liquid dark red, the lights in the room glinting off of it, and Kylo lowered the light intensity to a more subtle one for when Hux emerged, washing the maroon and peach furnishings into a sepia glow.

When he handed the glass to Hux, their fingers brushed, and Hux transferred the glass from his right hand to his left in order to keep in touch with Kylo, making him sit on the floor at the side of the tub. Hux took a sip of the drink, holding eye contact with Kylo, who settled his head on his arm on the tub's lip. Then, Hux handed the glass back. “Set this down,” he said, and Kylo did.

“You know,” he said when Kylo turned back to him, playing his fingers over Kylo's forearm, one of his preferred means of intimacy, as Kylo had learned in the past few years. “I could get used to all this ordering you around, Supreme Leader.”

“Just Kylo, please,” he replied. “You deserve it.”

“Hm, what kind of things could I have you do?” he mused, fingers wandering.

“Whatever you want,” Kylo's voice was becoming breathier by the second, the warm room and gentle touch lulling him into a calm, sleepy feeling.

“Would you get in here with me?” Hux asked, his voice sultry.

“Don't get to the fun part too early,” Kylo warned, nuzzling at Hux's wrist. There was still a hint of a deep, masculine cologne on it, beneath the smell of floral soap from the bubbles. “Besides, I'd get my robe wet.”

A little crease appeared on Hux's forehead. “This robe,” his fingers slipped to the open cuff gathered up around Kylo's elbow, pinching at the fabric and rubbing it between his fingers to feel the material. “Is it new?”

“I thought you might like it.”

“I'd like it better on the floor,” Hux murmured, “you, wearing it all through dinner like I would be able to think of anything other than what's under it. I was ready to do you over the counter.”

“You didn't show it,” Kylo said, and Hux's hand moved up to brush through his hair. Luckily, Kylo had used a nice, soft conditioner when he'd washed it earlier.

“I've had practice,” Hux told him, leaning forward and kissing him, melting and tender.

“Do I torture you that much?”

“You've no idea.”

“We torture each other, then,” Kylo said, finally capturing Hux's hand in his own and dropping a kiss on it.

“You romantic sod,” Hux chuckled, a smile lighting up his eyes.

They chatted easily for the rest of the time Hux spent in the bath, his idle fingers always pleasingly on some part of Kylo's arm or hand or head, sipping his wine and unwinding. Really, the visible effect was quite impressive, how Hux – snoozy and relaxed by the drink, food, bath and attention – became a happy, giggly person rather than the imposing military figurehead of a new empire which stretched across large swathes of the Galaxy. Kylo was in love.

When Kylo began to amuse himself by reaching in and tickling Hux's knees, Hux told him to make himself useful and massage his shoulders, finishing up the last of his drink – Kylo had levitated the bottle through for him to have another half glass – and laying his head back on Kylo's sternum. Kylo loved Hux's shoulders; they were perfectly straight, the little bump of his collarbone marking the beginning of subtle muscle definition down his arms, and the end to the plush slope of his neck, which Kylo delighted in kissing when Hux was relaxed like this.

Eventually, the water had cooled significantly enough that Kylo suggested they move through to the bedroom, and Hux dismissed him, saying he would meet him there. That left Kylo to sit on their large bed – he had broken out the good throws for tonight – and wait, not nervous, but strangely cold and aimless.

He was distinctly aware of the ring, blazing a hole in the drawer of his bedside table, even through the lead box he had put it in when the little nexus of Force-charged molecules had become too much. _Things have been going so well tonight,_ it seemed to reason _, you should ask him_.

But Kylo didn't want to ruin the mood. He hadn't figured out what was wrong yet, he reminded himself, and that meant he should do nothing.

The ring still blazed. The fucking thing would probably end up as the kind of famed Force artefact Snoke would have had him running around the galaxy for when he was still an apprentice. It vexed him to know this just as much as it validated him to know that it was a product of his good craftsmanship.

He wished he could turn his Force sensitivity off sometimes.

Thankfully, Hux soon emerged, his hair washed and dried quickly in the sonic, Kylo assumed by the new volume it had acquired, a towel wrapped low around his hips. Kylo couldn't take his eyes off of him, a few stray drops of water making their way down his chest to the slight pouch of his stomach, before being impeded by the towel.

He didn't say anything as he crossed to Kylo, encouraged him to draw up onto his knees, and pulled him into a kiss, deeper than the earlier ones of the evening and more forceful. Kylo's hands flew to Hux's waist, his fingers brushing over a litany of tiny scars that he'd had ever since Kylo had known him, things from his early service, he said. Kylo had mapped every single one like the stars.

Hux let Kylo push the towel off, and reached down to roughly loosen the robe's tie, slipping his hands under the collar and around Kylo's broad shoulders, the silk falling off easily as he went and pooling around Kylo's knees. Hux broke them apart to look down at Kylo, stroking out of the way a strand of hair which had come out of place. The way he looked at him... Kylo wanted it to always be like this, gazing up into those dark green-grey eyes, Hux a colossus, a god examining him like he was something worth treasuring, like something picked off the ground and exulted.

Hand on chest, Hux guided Kylo up to the top of the bed, where he settled against the headboard, legs spread, calling for Kylo to do something. And Kylo would gladly do all the work; Hux was meant to be relaxing.

Hux was already mostly hard, but Kylo knew he could do better, crawling forward and giving his cock a gentle, experimental lick before he took it into his mouth, getting most of the way down before he had to pause. Hux gasped at the sudden warmth, and through their locked eyes, he spurred him on. _Lower, faster,_ he seemed to say _, bob your head, more tongue,_ “Kylo,” he groaned.

Kylo weighed his hand down onto Hux's stomach, keeping him in place and feeling for the tensing of muscles there when he did something particularly good, like swirl his tongue around the head, or take him in until he could no longer breathe. By the time he pulled off completely, moving down to blow air across the area and nip at pale thighs, Hux was aching with it.

He surged in to drag Kylo close to him, chasing after the bitter taste of himself on Kylo's lips and tugging on his hair. Kylo obliged to every direction Hux was giving, every angle to one side or the other, pressing his chest forward and just barely holding himself up with his arms either side of Hux's hips.

“You're silly,” Hux breathed against him as Kylo started shuffling up to straddle him. “We should have had the bath after.”

“It's okay, we can have another one,” Kylo told him, shivering when Hux started biting and sucking a path down his neck, fingers pouring over the lines of each muscle on his chest. Digging among the pillows, Kylo located the bottle of lube he had placed there earlier, trying not to get in the way of Hux's roving hands as he popped it open and squirted some onto his fingers.

“Oh, you're dirty,” Hux asserted, scraping blunt nails down his ribs and stretching up to take Kylo's lower lip between his teeth. “What would they all say if they knew their Supreme Leader was so eager?”

Kylo's breathing stuttered as he brought his fingers to his hole, the lube still cold. His eyes fell closed as he concentrated, his cock brushing against Hux's as he tried to find the right angle. “They would be, ah- jealous,” he replied, slipping his fingers inside. He had prepped himself thoroughly earlier, and he was still loose enough that it was going quickly this time.

He felt other fingers join his, and he opened his eyes to see Hux reaching around, an awed expression on his face. “You did this already?”

“Yes,” Kylo whined, biting his lip and letting Hux take over with the ministrations.

“Alone, without me?” a teasing tone was spreading into Hux's voice now. “You couldn't wait?”

“I wanted to be ready... _Hux..._ ”

Hux licked a stripe up to Kylo's ear, stopping at the top to whisper, “Did you use your little toys on yourself?”

“Mmhmm,” Kylo said, drawing Hux's hand out of him by the wrist. He reached down and lined up with Hux's cock, feeling the familiar way it connected with his rim. He met Hux's eyes, above him now, a glorious reversal of their earlier position, drinking in the way his love looked up at him like a man possessed. Letting out a deep breath, he sank down onto Hux's length, speaking into his mind as he did, _You know they're no good compared to you_.

Hux's mouth was stuck in an open position, his hands braced against Kylo's heaving chest as they both adjusted to the feeling. “Kylo,” he said, more breath than sound.

“Hux,” Kylo replied, leaning down to catch their lips together.

He started moving, slowly, a grind that had Hux's thighs twitching, and his thumbs losing their rhythm over his nipples.

They didn't fuck this way often, Hux usually preferring to give himself over to the all-consuming pleasure Kylo could provide when he topped. That was the habit they had fallen into, but when they did swap, it was generally charged, Hux taking a firm lead and Kylo giving as good as he got the entire time. He didn't know if they'd done it slowly this way before. Ever.

He raised himself up, muscles easily accommodating both his weight and the distraction his pleasure was causing. As he came down again, Hux brushed over that bundle of nerves inside him and he clenched, punching a groan out of them both. He slowly picked up his speed, bracing his arms on the top of the headboard either side of Hux's ears, the bed squeaking unsatisfyingly little thanks to its quality. In the background, one of the album's last songs was playing, a slower, deeper sound that vibrated around them and just made everything _better_. Hux's hands settled on his hips, exerting only in miniscule amounts of pressure, like he was piloting a drone or directing a microscopic arm on one of his engineering projects.

Kylo was just beginning to build up a sweat when Hux spoke again, voice strained at the sensation of Kylo moving around him, his hair strafing over his eyes. “Do you have anything to say to me?”

Kylo frowned, not breaking his rhythm as he grunted out a, “What?”

“I- ah, assumed you were building up to propose to me again,” he said, dropping his chin to watch the point where he was disappearing into Kylo over and over. “Some time when I was– ah, caught up in it and couldn't say no.”

Now Kylo drew to a pause, sitting back as far as he could without pulling off in order to get a measure on Hux's expressions.

“No, don't stop,” Hux ordered him, thrusting up.

Kylo complied, a little slower than the pace he had worked up to before, to give him time to think. Hux hadn't sounded or looked bitter at all, merely interested. Perhaps he had forgiven Kylo for his bad timings, for what he'd said back on the planet. “Why?” was all he asked.

“The leave, the bath, this position,” Hux rattled off, looking distracted, more focussed on his approaching climax. “They seem specially chosen.”

“I wasn't going to,” Kylo told him, thighs feeling the first ache of exertion. “I just wanted to spoil you.”

“Right.”

“Why, would it work?”

“No.”

“Then let's forget about it,” Kylo said, picking up his pace and reducing Hux's breathing to a pant.

“You will, ah, keep trying, won't you?” Hux's hand wrapped around Kylo's cock as he asked this, moving it up and down to counter Kylo's own direction of movement.

“Yes,” Kylo forced out, gritting his teeth against how good the sensation was. He wouldn't last long, but he wanted Hux to come first, he wanted-

“Good,” Hux breathed out, his grip tightening, and Kylo could feel that his orgasm was washing over him, his energy in the Force like the pulse of a reactor overload, filling him up. It didn't take him long to follow, riding out the aftershocks as Hux buried his head into his shoulder, all heated skin and heavy breathing.

They separated after a long moment, Kylo pressing a kiss to Hux's lips before rolling to lie next to him on the bed. When Kylo next checked, Hux's eyes had slipped closed, but his fingers were still tracing circles on Kylo's shoulder. He looked peaceful. Content.

When he was planning everything earlier, Kylo hadn't expected to have to think about things after they had fucked, so he didn't, letting things stand exactly as Hux had said and avoiding the emotional work of thinking about anything deeper there. He could do it later if he really had to.

He stood up, retrieved his robe and cleaned himself up in the bathroom quickly before fetching the bowls of dessert from the kitchen with two spoons.

In the bedroom, Hux had ensconced himself under the covers, the renewedly dirty bath towel discarded on the far floor in a heap. He smiled lazily when Kylo re-entered, flipping back the covers on the other side of the bed and snuggling in close against him when he got in. Kylo handed him the dessert and he made a pleased little hum as he tried it.

“When can we do that again?” he asked at some point.

“You tell me,” Kylo replied.

“Hm,” Hux said, facing Kylo and dropping his gaze to his lips. Kylo had been about to reach up to wipe away the dot of cream that had smeared there, but Hux stopped him, long fingers around his wrist. He leaned in to kiss it off himself. “Soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The music I was kind of thinking of them listening to something like [Alligator by the National](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4M-T2RUgLs&list=OLAK5uy_n3c6cH4iSO1FR6Iqq7ZGDaWdP_Puzz0ic), but make it space and make it kind of sexier I guess, because there's nothing specific which is exactly right. I would take suggestions though of course :)  
> I don't know what possessed me to make their furnishings peach and maroon but I was halfway through describing it as icy blue tones when I realised that was 100% not the picture I had in my head. I think they should get some warm colours.  
> This appears to be my longest chapter yet! It's like 3700 ish words.  
> I have no idea how many people are still reading, but thank you if you are, and thank you for all the comments and kudos! I'm on tumblr at [@elderbwrry](https://elderbwrry.tumblr.com/).


	6. River Stones Remain, While Water Flows Away

+1.

Kylo was lying on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling.

On his stomach sat a data pad, blank and empty and mocking his attempts to make a plan.

After the week he had spent treating himself to Hux's company, Kylo was happy they were back to a stable enough point from which to move forward again with the marriage proposal. He wanted to get it right, though. The blank page only reminded him that every other time he had 'wanted to get it right', it had gone down like a steaming pile of bantha dung.

It wasn't enough, he decided, to simply not get things wrong. It also had to be _good_. But how? He had tried in public. He had tried in private. He had tried on the ship. He had tried off the ship (kind of). He had tried on duty. He had tried off duty. He had tried with Hux himself bringing it up first. None of that had worked. There was something he was missing.

What was it?

With a groan, he threw his arm over his eyes.

Booted footsteps clicked smartly into the room, paused, and then approached. “Would you tell me what's wrong,” Hux asked, “or is it just the eternal struggle of being Kylo Ren, Force user extraordinaire?”

Kylo shifted his arm to let in a crack of light through which he could spy Hux. The man was pulling on his gloves and preparing to leave for work, his appearance totally pristine. A navy blue uniform today, Kylo noted, high-low cape with cream trim, and trousers that hugged his hips attractively. “It's complicated.”

Hux was obviously feeling indulgent – his week of leave had been _very_ enjoyable – because he side-stepped closer and sat on the caf table near to Kylo's head. “They surely don't need me just yet.”

Kylo sighed, removing his arm and fixing Hux with a searching look. How should he ask his intended for advice on how to propose? He didn't think he could do it without ruining the surprise. But then, nothing he had done had worked, Hux always rebuffing any surprise he tried to spring. And Hux liked to be in control of things. It made him an excellent Grand Marshall. Maybe he should appeal to that side of him.

“Can you not be Hux?” he asked, hoping it didn't come off wrong. “Just for a minute.”

Hux looked mildly taken aback, opening and closing his mouth and adjusting his posture. Eventually he said, “Who would you like me to be?”

“My Grand Marshall,” Kylo told him. “Just give me good advice.”

“Of course, Supreme Leader.”

The corners of Kylo's mouth quirked. Trust Hux to take it so literally. “Right, so, there's this guy,” he began.

The Grand Marshall nodded.

“He's amazing. He's funny and gorgeous and smart and I love him. A lot. I want to get married to him,” Kylo explained, trying to get over the absurdity of telling all this to the man himself.

“Do you think that's wise, Supreme Leader?” the Grand Marshall asked, leaning into the question.

Kylo frowned.

He elaborated. “You don't think you should be marrying a dignitary? Someone through whom you can strengthen political bonds?”

Kylo shook his head, cutting the air with his hand. “Definitely not, I am set on my choice. There is nobody else for me.”

“Very well, Supreme Leader,” his Grand Marshall said, putting his folded hands in his lap. “You would probably be painfully awkward with a dignitary anyway. The marriage would be horribly unhappy and sexless.”

Kylo elected to ignore the jab at his social skills. “Well I've asked him already a few times and he keeps refusing. He wants it to be romantic, and I thought I'd done that, but...” he cast around, as if the light fittings would tell him everything. They did not. “I don't know.”

The Grand Marshall was quiet for a long time. “Have you thought less about what he wants and more about what he needs?” His voice sounded smaller. Purposefully steeled.

Kylo turned to him now, looking at his flinty eyes, downcast and pensive under light brows, examining his twisting hands. He looked like an angel. “I thought so?” Kylo said. He wanted to reach out, ease the discomfort he could see his Grand Marshall falling prey to. “I put effort into the ring I got y- him. I tried to make the places I asked him special and beautiful. I thought I'd got it right, but he didn't like it.”

The Grand Marshall pursed his lips, shrugging. “Have you thought that,” he paused. He paused for so long, Kylo was worried this was too much. He was about to sit up and apologise when- “Have you thought that there might be a... tradition, he's hoping for? Or something his culture says he should have?”

Kylo blinked. Actually, no. He hadn't thought that.

“Did your culture have anything like that?”

“No, I... marriage in the Republic was kind of a casual thing,” he muttered. “And, anyway, I never thought about it, since I was supposed to be forbidden...”

The Grand Marshall hummed. “It's not the same, everywhere. There are usually... gifts of a certain kind that are...” his voice became barely more than a whisper, an embarrassed confession. “Required.”

Kylo stared at him. His mind flashed back viscerally to a storm swept meadow, Hux's hurt, defiant face, his pouted lips, his accusatory question, _“Do you know kriffing anything about Arkanis?”_

“Oh,” he said.

They sat for a moment more in silence, Kylo's mind reeling – how could he be so stupid? Had he insulted Hux by proposing without the correct ceremonies? This is what Hux had been asking for the entire time, prompting him to understand. If only he wasn't so inattentive – and the Grand Marshall sitting there all this time, silently, still considering his gloved, navy hands.

Finally Hux blinked, straightened up, met Kylo's eye. “I have to go,” he leaned forward, threaded is fingers into the hair at the base of Kylo's neck and kissed his forehead. “I will see you tonight.” He walked out without waiting for a reply.

Kylo stared at the ceiling. The ceiling stared back at him blankly.

Then, he snatched up the data pad and requested the First Order's entire cultural database on the newly liberated planet of Arkanis.

When Kylo arrived, the sun was just setting on the botanical station of Scelis 6-32. It rotated around a massive super gas giant, and though the intense pinprick of the sun was hidden by the biodome's horizon, the orange of the planet's gas clouds kept the place glowing like a summer afternoon. The station was a feat of mechanics, astronomy and politics, brought around to the First Order not by threat or fighting, but by the rulers of the area – a thoroughly neutral party in a safe span of space – capitulating to them and accepting the benefits of Order rule. Hux had remarked once to Kylo about how much that had pleased him.

Aside from this obvious satisfaction, the station was beautiful, a perfectly balanced biodome under a glittering sky, its climate one of tropical tendency without being overly warm, its plants rare and beautiful. It was not merely scientific either, instead operating as a checkpoint, trading post and leisure outfit.

Kylo had picked it carefully.

After he had torn through reading the database on Arkanis, he took his notes – the most meticulous ones he had ever had the cause to make – and taken his shuttle, leaving only documents confirming his absence, and that he would return. He was so swept up in what he had to do that he didn't even feel particularly bad for leaving Hux without a more personal message as to where he was going.

He had kept tabs on him, though, making sure that during the _Supremacy_ 's night shifts, he could reach out and warm Hux with the Force, make their large bed feel fuller than it was, gently influence him to go to sleep if he was awake too late. One day, when he had reached out, he had found Hux sitting cross legged on the foot of the bed, half dressed like he'd forgotten what he was doing and gazing at the ring, Kylo's bedside drawer left haphazardly open. Kylo had left him to it that night.

When he'd done what he needed to, he had sent a request through to Hux – he never wanted to order him anywhere ever again – to meet on Scelis for an off-duty reunion. The answer he received back had been a curt, barely polite confirmation, but it had come in so quickly that he didn't feel worried.

Now, Station Control had confirmed for him that Hux had been there a whole half-day early, his escort ship a sleek, dark shape in holding position near the docks.

When Kylo had boarded, he had wanted to go and find Hux immediately, his every fibre humming with proximity, urging him that he needed to see him again, touch him again, pledge himself again. He held himself back, heading first to an interim room the station had provided for him, forcing himself to have a shower and take stock rather than rushing straight off.

He laid everything out on the bed in front of him – he wouldn't be staying there tonight, he hoped, if Hux said yes – his clothes, a bouquet of flowers, the gift. The only thing missing was the ring. He could feel it on the station, its cold intent slumbering in a bag of Hux's, and he meditated, phasing it through the Force to drop onto the bed in front of him in its little box.

Perfect.

Hux was in the gardens right now, Kylo sensed, before checking the location of the guards on a data pad and finding them near a little pond to the far side.

He smoothed his clothes down. They were new, a puffy shirt, black with fitted trousers, a small side bag and a dark red silk cloak on top to go over his shoulder. They weren't quite the grandiose clothes Hux encouraged him to wear when he was out being the Supreme Leader for all to see, and they weren't his more relaxed clothes he wore in their chambers. They were a proper, traditional old style of Alderaan, like something his mother had used to make him wear for official events when he was young; they had just a whiff of ceremony about them without being too uncomfortable. That was good.

He picked up the gifts and made his way to Hux.

He took a shuttle train through the place to roughly the right zone, crossing the rest by foot.

The gardens were balanced so that something was perpetually in bloom. When the artificial season of one flower ended, another's began; at the moment, there were little crimson creeper blossoms everywhere with dark purple centres which smelled like apples. The leaves on the trees and shrubs were lush, and there were many dark-leaved plants dripping with a soothing spray of water, though the sandstone paths were dry.

He emerged from a winding little path into a paved square, the entrance flanked by First Order guards in the discreet iteration of their uniform, grainy black tunics with a red trim that indicated their purpose without being obviously First Order, and without being quite as terrifying as their usual red armour. Hux would have ordered that. Kylo marvelled at it; this was the kind of thing he himself would have forgotten to do, if he was the one being guarded on a civilian station. They saluted as he approached, and he nodded at them.

Hux was sitting at the side of a fountain, studying his data pad, a picture of serenity all except for his foot, bouncing nervous and impatient. Kylo took a second, ducking behind a large, frondy fern, trying to calm his racing heart. It had been almost a fortnight since he had seen his love, but it felt like longer. (It always felt like longer.) He admired through the gaps in the leaves the ever-sharp lines of Hux's face, made soft by the thin, oversized light green jumper he was wearing, the dark trousers, the casual brown boots.

Hux. His Hux.

He took a deep breath and approached.

Hux looked up, and Kylo saw a wealth of emotions flit over his face; relief, happiness, unfathomable anger, wanting, delight. He left the pad precariously at the side of the fountain, standing and all but rushing to meet Kylo, a little spring in his step. He called his name as he did, reaching out like he couldn't stop himself.

Kylo smiled, pausing in his step to receive him. Being very careful of the bouquet in his hand, he gathered Hux up into his arms, lifting him off the ground to spin around, the familiar weight making his muscles glad of the strain. When he set Hux back down, he found his mouth occupied in an instant, crushing the greeting he tried to give. Hux kept his hands on Kylo even after they separated from the kiss, standing in his space, delightfully close after their time away.

“You're not allowed to just leave like that,” Hux reprimanded sharply, and Kylo could tell this would be a longer conversation later. “It is completely unacceptable behaviour for the leader of the First Order.”

Kylo shrugged. “I brought flowers.”

“Oh, well then all is forgiven,” he said sarcastically, but allowed Kylo to bring the bouquet between them to hand it over. His mouth formed a little _o_ when he saw them close enough to make the details, taking them into one hand and cupping one of the flowers with the other, angling it towards the light. “They're beautiful,” he said.

“They're Alderaanian lilies,” Kylo informed him softly. “They have a thriving culture of them here and were kind enough to give me some.”

Hux sniffed them gently. “Oh my gods,” he exclaimed, “they smell amazing.”

“Good,” Kylo said. Hux was still so close to him and he loved it, especially since Hux wasn't usually so... publicly demonstrative. Of course, there was nobody with them, except for their trusted guards who, Kylo supposed, had probably heard far worse noises coming from their chambers on the _Supremacy_. The thought had Kylo leaning forward to draw Hux into another slow kiss, delighting in how he could _feel_ Hux's smile.

“Where did you go?” Hux asked when they finally had to breathe. His forehead marred by a conflicted frown, the soft light of the gas giant playing off his features. “I didn't do something, did I?”

“Um,” Kylo glanced around. There was a small clearing opposite the fountain, hidden by some tree cover. “Come on,” he said, leading Hux under.

It was darker inside. The pond was a glassy blue-black and reflected the stars and trees in the canopy above it, tiny circular leaves of pond plants dappling the shallows. It was like a magical grove, a collection of gently glowing purple flowers springing up in patches around the banks and at the feet of trees. There was a dry, grassy space that Kylo lead them to stand on.

It was quiet as Kylo tried to think of what to say. While his ship was in hyperdrive on the way to the station, he had planned out a little speech including an apology for taking so long to get here, and a confession of love. Currently, that speech existed nowhere except on the data pad back in the room. It certainly wasn't in his head. He could hear the rushing of blood in his ears, the pumping of his heart, Hux's breathing and his own.

Hux slid his free hand into Kylo's, and when Kylo looked up, his expectant expression seemed to banish everything else.

“I asked for advice,” Kylo found himself saying, “from the smartest man I know. He said I should read some things, which I did. Be more considerate about his past.” He swallowed hard. “And I left to go and do that.”

Kylo pulled back the cloak and put his hand in the obscured bag at his side. There were only two things in there, and he drew out the one wrapped in a small square of dark green silk, keeping it bundled up.

“I found his planet. It has shorelines that stretch on for miles, and rivers larger than most seas. The weather there is terrible and I had to wait for days before I was cleared to land. When I did, I went to the beaches and I found,” Kylo opened his hand, lifting it between their chests and letting the silk fall open.

Hux gasped – actually gasped – and reached out, flicking away the last corner of fabric which had not acquiesced to Kylo's attempt at a romantic reveal. In the little hollow formed by his palm sat a pebble, a rounded, flattened oval, slightly oblong, but otherwise a perfect shape, a medium grey speckled with a few dots of white, heavy and smooth and unblemished by chips or deep pockmarks.

The reading Kylo had done had screamed one thing about Arkanisian courting, one glaring, indispensable ritual that sat right at the shore of all the information they had, ready and waiting for anyone to find should they need to know.

 _At marriage proposal_ , the database had read, _it is customary for a suitor to present their intended with a pebble, found on the shore by their own hand. Their proposal will then be judged on the appeal of the pebble – texture, colour, size and shape – to determine both if the suitor is attuned to the minutest tastes of their intended, and if they have spent sufficient time and effort on finding it. This is symbolic of their devotion, or future attentiveness as a spouse. In the age of spacefaring, it is preferred for suitors of those of Arkanisian extraction to venture back to Arkanis to find their pebble. Planetside, any of the upper classes have dispensed with the ritual entirely in favour of shows of wealth, but for the lower classes, it is essential and marriage cannot be accepted without such a presentation, to the exception of other gifts._

“I...” Kylo stammered, feeling the need to get all he had learned out at once. “I know it's also customary to have some family members present, but I wasn't sure you'd like that, and I don't think I could even manage it, what with our-”

“It's perfect,” Hux said. “Gods, it's exactly right, Kylo,” His eyes were twinkling. Kylo didn't think he'd seen Hux smile this wide ever. “May I take it?”

Kylo nodded, and Hux took it so carefully, sliding his hand under the silk and using it to hold the pebble as if it were the most precious thing in the galaxy, even bending down to set the flowers on the ground so he could hold it properly. He inspected it all over before finally touching it directly, running the pads of his fingers over the entire surface. It was only a few centimetres across, but it seemed to represent everything to Hux.

“Does it...” Kylo took a deep breath. If this wasn't right, he thought he might break. “Does it meet with your approval?”

“Yes, Kylo,” Hux breathed, “yes.” Then Hux's hand was in his hair, the other holding the pebble crushed between their chests as they kissed, messily and clumsily, but Kylo didn't care, Hux was saying yes, yes, _yes_. Everything seemed to sing; the birds around them, the rustling in the trees, the buzzing of their air filtration systems, the rumble of engines far beneath their feet.

They broke apart, Hux breathing heavily, torn between the pebble and Kylo as he spoke, “I... this... I wanted... my mother never had one, she wasn't... we weren't... neither of us were really ever like m-my father, I just-”

“I know,” Kylo said, cupping the hand Hux was holding the pebble in and running his thumb over the side. Hux wasn't as connected to Arkanis as he wanted to be, to the traditions of his mother's side; this gift was something he could use to hold onto that. “The reading made it make sense.”

Hux laughed breathlessly. “Maybe you'll actually read the reports I send you, now you see how much it helps.” Then he shook his head, banishing work from his mind. Then, he looked vaguely guilty. “We should go get the ring, it's back in my quarters. I know, I shouldn't have taken it, I-”

“Hey,” Kylo smiled, withdrawing the ring from the bag and sinking to one knee to open the box. “I know it doesn't compare to a pebble, but-”

“Oh, shut up you complete _buffoon_ ,” Hux exclaimed, his cheeks colouring, his hands actually shaking.

“Hux,” Kylo said steadily, mustering himself to be as serious as possible. “Will you marry me?”

“Yes!” Hux's voice trembled as the word rolled off his tongue. He extended his left hand, let Kylo take it in his and slide the ring on his finger.

Hux allowed himself a moment to admire the ring; Kylo knew this was a purely vain action, based on how much he'd seen Hux look at it – on the _Supremacy_ , on the shuttle, when Kylo was gone (it was Hux who had brought it with, for fuck's sake) – but it looked so good to see it on him, that dark band contrasting so beautifully with his pale skin. Unable to take his eyes off it himself, Kylo considered that it might be time to forbid the wearing of gloves in his presence.

“Wow,” was all Kylo got time to say before Hux was pushing him down into another kiss, rolling them over on the grass and laughing the most beautiful sound Kylo had ever heard.

“I'm so happy, what the kriff?” Hux panted out when they rolled to a stop, staring up at the stars above them.

Kylo turned his head to the side and brushed back a hair that was out of place from Hux's head. “I want you always to be this happy.”

“I... this...” Now Hux faced him, expression soft. It took Kylo's breath away. “I love you, Kylo.”

“I love you too,” he replied.

Hux glanced down at the both of them, hands intertwined, the little pebble clutched in between the two. Their clothes were a mess of mud and grass. “Even after I got your clothes all dirty?”

Kylo nodded. “If you still agreed to marry me after I fucked it up so many times, I can agree to love you after getting my clothes dirty.” He slid his free hand under Hux's sweater and shirt, brushing over his ribs with a feather-light touch to make him squirm. “Besides, I won't be needing them back in the room.”

“You aren't wrong.” Hux grinned, touching their foreheads together. After a second, he frowned. “Who's going to officiate?”

“Officiate?”

“The wedding.”

“Oh! Um... Phasma?”

“She'd never agree. Who else is the most proper person you know?”

“Hmm... Skywalker?”

“I doubt he would approve.”

“Well we could always get Peavey back.”

“Continue in that vein and there's a lot else you'll be wanting to get back...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you have it, Hux is a penguin with more complicated emotions.
> 
> The chapter headings for this fic come from a bunch of [sayings about stones](https://www.beachstonesinspired.com/rocks-and-stones-inspirational-quotes.html) which I found inspiring, to fit with the theme of rocks etc. Maybs it's a weak theme lol but it was nice to try and get one in.  
> I really hope you enjoyed this, and thanks for reading this far. It fully started out as a vague post-nightmare comfort drabble I had which became... this. Thanks again to everyone who commented, it has fueled me.  
> I'm on [tumblr](https://elderbwrry.tumblr.com/) here if you want to see what other Kylux stuff I'm up to, or even if you ever want to shoot me an idea or something (like whether I should write the wedding? Lemme know.)


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